Bush Nuts and Water
Macadamias are intimately linked with flowing water – animals and birds only carry nuts for a limited distance and gravity.
Which insects visit Bush Nuts in the forest?
Bush Nuts can be difficult to find scattered along rugged forested slopes, so this project will train machine learning to search satellite imagery for likely habitat. Once a range of remote locations have been identified, cameras will be installed to monitor the insects that visit the trees at the different sites.
Which soil fungi live in and around Bush Nuts?
Trees are part of a complex web of life and yet we know very little about what goes on in and around the roots of macadamia trees. This project investigates the fungi that lives around Bush Nuts, not just in the soil, but in symbiosis with the roots themselves.
Wild macadamias listed on the IUCN Red List
Three Macadamia species are now listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Macadamia integrifolia, native to south-east QLD, is listed as “vulnerable” while M. ternifolia, native to QLD, and M. tetraphylla, from northern NSW, are in the more threatened category of “endangered”. Global interest in the story has been sparked by a feature …